School Counselor Blog

In my role as a school counseling department chair, I am always on the lookout for professional development opportunities. I know how challenging it can be to find relevant professional development that meets school counselors' needs. Below I share a few virtual professional development events and options for school counselors. These ideas and suggestions would be excellent options to for you to attend solo or to share with other school counselors in your district!  Hatching Results School Counseling Institutes Hatching Results is hosting two upcoming School Counseling Institutes! They are hosting a Secondary School Counseling Institute on November 15th and an Elementary School Counseling Institute on November 16th. For more information and to register for the School Counseling Institutes visit: https://www.hatchingresults.com/virtual-events/ You can participate in the sessions live and you will have access to the recordings for three months! Both School Counseling Institutes are ...

Did you know you can seamlessly create QR Codes using Google Chrome?! It is so easy and literally takes seconds.  In the brief video below, I share how to create a QR Code using Google Chrome. Why Use QR Codes? QR Codes are scannable with a smart device such as a smartphone, iPad, or other tablet. No need to type in a website URL. Easily Share Responses Combine Google Forms with a QR Code and you can easily get responses for your Google Forms. When I have a survey that I want students to take, such as needs assessments or a  Minute Meeting  form, I create a QR Code so I can easily share it with them. Below are some examples of how I share the QR Codes with students.  Documents at Their Fingertips You can convert any URL to a QR Code. If you have a document or other resource you want to share with students, parents, or other stakeholders, you just need the URL. Create a flyer or postcard with the QR code so that stakeholders can access it.   How will you use QR C...

Are you still Zooming? Even though my school is currently in-person, I still spend lots of time on Zoom. Recently, I had three Zoom meetings in one day. All of this Zooming made me think that others might benefit from some tips and tricks to improve your Zoom experience. You can use these tips for hosting Zoom meetings, participating in Zoom meetings, presenting for a virtual conference, or being a virtual conference participant.  Check out the post below for 6 Tips to Improve Your Zoom Experience for School Counselors.   1. Use a Ring Light Using a ring light is a great way to make your Zoom meetings, virtual conference presentations, and video chats look more professional. Ring lights balance light and reduce shadows. Ring lights also brighten your face and make you look your best. The ring light I have was under $20 and has been a game changer for me.  I even included the  ring light I have  in my recent post about  Gift Ideas for School Counselors . 2....

Andrea Burston ( @jyjcounselor ) and I presented  Three Tech Tools to Enhance Your School Counseling Program , for the ASCA Webinar Series. The webinar recording is now available on ASCA's website. View the recording here: bit.ly/3techtools4scp . All webinars in the 2021 ASCA Webinar Series are FREE, if you are an ASCA member. A peek behind the scenes.  💻✨ It was so fun to share ways school counselors can use Canva for Education , Smore , and Screencastify to connect with stakeholders. We share lots of examples of how you can use these tech tools in your school counseling program.  Need presenters? Andrea and I love sharing practical tech tools and resources school counselors can use in their school counseling programs. We would love to present to your district, local, or state school counselor organization! Email me to book us for your event! If you have questions, email me or Direct Message me on  Instagram  or  Twitter .  ...

I'm new to the email scheduling scene. I didn't see the appeal at first. Now that I'm in the routine of it, I love the ease of scheduling emails! Here are some tips to optimize scheduling emails: ✨ Think About Timing ✨ Don't let your email get lost in the clutter. Schedule your emails to arrive when the recipient will most likely see your email. With strategic planning, your email can arrive at the top of your recipient's inbox! When I schedule emails to send to students, I schedule them to arrive at 8:00 am. Our first class period is 8:00am, so I know they will have their computers open.  ✨ Make it Predictable ✨ If you find yourself sending the same email every week, schedule it to send at a specific time. Your recipient will begin expecting the arrival of your email.  I send a weekly news & events slideshow to the whole school staff. I scheduled my email to arrive at 7:15 am on Monday morning. Staff will begin to expect this email first thing every Monday. ✨ ...

In my previous post I shared the first part of my Digital Safety lesson for 6th grade students . During the second half of the lesson I showed students a video focusing on digital privacy and safety.  When looking for a video to share, I went first to  Rebecca Lallier's blog, School Counseling by Heart  and found this awesome video below. (Rebecca is an expert on all things child abuse so be sure to check out her MANY resources!) The video is about a girl who has a public account online. It outlines some of the dangers of having your information open and available for anyone to see. It is 8 minutes and 34 seconds long. Before watching the video with my students, I explained that the video we are about to watch can be a little creepy at times, but I felt like it was important to for you to see what can happen if we do not take our digital safety seriously.  During the video students gasped at different parts, especially when the predator goes into he...

This week, while one third of the sixth grade was out of the building each day for a field trip, I have been teaching bullying and digital safety lessons in all of the 6th grade science classes. I have had a blast getting to know our new 6th graders. I was planning to share what I did each day of lessons in sequence, but I really just could not wait to share this one with you!!!!!!!!! While planning lessons, I shared with my co-counselor that I wanted to do to  the line game  activity  related to social media and other online site usage for the first half of my lesson of my Digital Safety lesson. He suggested I use   Kahoot!  so students could use their ChromeBooks to respond to the prompts. I never heard of  Kahoot!  before but I was excited to incorporate this new tool into my lessons!  Kahoot!  is an  amazing, easy to use quiz based learning website.   Students can use their iPads, iPhones, iPods, ChromeBooks, laptops,...

The topic of the the January #SCCHAT was  Promoting Your School Counseling Program. The chat was moderated by Franciene Sabens ( @FSabens ), a high school counselor from Illinois, and Chris Wood ( @ChrisWood415 ), high school counselor from Iowa. This was a fast-paced chat where school counselors shared TONS excellent ideas and resources to promote your school counseling program!We will chatted about ideas and resources for promoting your school counseling program to students, parents, and other stakeholders! You can view the transcript below or   read the full transcript here . For more information about #SCCHAT and transcripts from previous chats visit:  http://bit.ly/scchat-info . [ View the story "January #SCCHAT: Promoting Your School Counseling Program " on Storify ] #SCCHAT occurs on the first Tuesday of the month unless otherwise specified. To add the #SCCHAT schedule to your calendar  click here . We are in the process of planning a special Sc...

I have had the pleasure of working with Dr. Erin Mason in various capacities for the past few years. She never ceases to amaze me with her brilliant ideas of how to connect school counselors! Well, Dr. Mason is at it again and she came up with a FREE "One Tool-At-A-Time" Series  on SCOPE  to teach school counselors how they could use various tech tools! So far in the  "One Tool-At-A-Time" Series  she shared how to use:    Twitter (just in time for this month's #SCCHAT !) Livebinders Google Drive and Forms Smore Remind 101 All the videos are less than 50 minutes and teach you how to use and implement the tools! Check out the Smore flyer below to watch all 5 videos! What is your favorite tech tool to use as a school counselor? What tech tools would you like to learn more about? Comment below,  tweet ,  contact Danielle , or share on the  School Counselor Blog Facebook Page ! Danielle is a K-12 Certified School Cou...

I am still in the process of recovering from all of the excitement of the 2013 ASCA Conference in Philadelphia, PA. I decided to write a series of posts because I really can't cram everything I want to say into one post! I will give you the highlights of each day I attended the conference, even though the whole conference was amazing! July 1, 2013 - ASCA Conference Day 2 Before I share about the Tech Smackdown, I must say that I fell in LOVE with the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia! I have been to the  Reading Terminal Market  in Philly before, but being at the conference for multiple days allowed me to really enjoy it and all of its splendor! It was so cool to have so many unique and varied food options available all in one place. And now, I must share my breakfast from day 2 with you because it was AMAZING! Strawberry-Banana-Nutella Crepe from Profi's Creperie at Reading Terminal Market Ok... enough about crepes... now on to the rest of the day! ;)...

The next School Counselor Tweet Chat is on  Tuesday, May 7, 2013  at 8pmEST. The topic for this month's School Counselor Tweet Chat is Andrea Burston ( @andreajburston ) from  JYJ Counselor  will be moderating the chat about iPads in School Counseling K-12 .  We will be chatting about how school counselors can utilize iPads in their work as school counselors at the elementary, middle school, and high school level. Come ready to share your favorite apps and how you use them! You will learn lots of ways you can use the iPad in school counseling! We look forward to tweeting with you! Join  School Counselor Blog  and  SCOPE  for #scchat the first Tuesday of the month @ 8pmEST!  For transcripts of previous #SCCHATs, schedules for future School Counselor Tweet Chats, and information on how to participate, visit #SCCHAT Info:  http://bit.ly/scchat-info . If you are interested in moderating a future School Counsel...

December's #SCCHAT was held on December 4, 2012 at 8pmEST. The topic was Recognize ASCA Model Programs (RAMP) .   Dr. Erin Mason ( @ecmmason ) was the moderator. There was lots of great conversation and questions about the RAMP Process. School Counselors who work in RAMP schools shared information and tips about becoming RAMP. Books and resources were also recommended. This is a great chat to read if you are thinking about RAMP, are in the beginning stages of RAMP or almost ready to apply! Check out the full chat transcript here! To access all of the tweets with the hashtag #scchat,  click here . For transcripts of previous #SCCHATs, schedules for future School Counselor Tweet Chats, and information on how to participate, visit #SCCHAT Info: http://bit.ly/scchat-info . The next School Counselor Tweet Chat is on Tuesday, January 8, 2013 at 8pmEST. Darrell Sampson ( @CnslrDarrell ) will be moderating the chat about Working with LGBT Students and Families.  D...

The next School Counselor Tweet Chat is Tuesday, December 3, 2012 at 8pmEST! The topic of School Counselor Tweet Chat this month is the  Recognized American School Counselor Association Model Programs (RAMP) .   Dr. Erin Mason  ( @ecmmason ) will be moderating the tweet chat. We will be tweeting about aspects of the RAMP process. I am sure you will get some great ideas if you are currently working towards RAMP, are already in a RAMP school, or want to learn more about what it means to be a RAMP school. Also if you are a school counselor, counselor educator, or school counseling graduate student who uses Twitter, please take this survey . I am helping Dr. Mason with research about how school counselors use Twitter. We look forward to tweeting with you! Join  School Counselor Blog  and  SCOPE  for  #scchat  the first Tuesday of the month @ 8pmEST!  For transcripts of previous #SCCHATs, schedules for future School Counselor...

As I mentioned in my previous post  I am working on School Counselor Twitter research with Dr. Erin Mason , founder of School Counselor Online Professional Exchange (SCOPE) .   If you are a school counselor, school counseling graduate student, or counselor educator that uses Twitter, please take this survey to share how you use twitter:  buff.ly/YsqLhf . I was charged with the task of determining how many school counselors there are on Twitter. At first I had no idea how I was going to do it... I mean Twitter is a pretty big place. I also wasn't sure what I would do with the information once I found it.   Then I had an idea that would not only help me catalog school counselors, but would beneficial to school counselors on Twitter.  I decided to create lists of school counselors on Twitter.  The Twitter lists I created will help school counselors, school counseling graduate students, and counselor educators on Twitter easily find and connect with...